


Her Return

by PixelPrincessFluffy



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Akamatsu Kaede Lives, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Angst, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fluffiness, Kaede especially, Sadness, Screw you Monokuma, Some Humor, Sort Of, Spoilers, These two deserved so much better, With A Twist, headcanons, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 20:19:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17351936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelPrincessFluffy/pseuds/PixelPrincessFluffy
Summary: or, Not Another "Kaede Lives" Fanfic.





	Her Return

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually the first proper Danganronpa fanfic I've ever written, back in April 2018. I'm quite proud of it.
> 
> Contains massive spoilers for Chapter 1 of Danganronpa V3. But that should be obvious.

_“I believe in you, so you should definitely believe in yourself!”_

Her words echoed in Shuichi’s mind as he leaned back against the wall of the research lab, the music flowing through the room giving him little comfort. His mind couldn’t stop drifting back to that class trial, and that horrible execution.

_Kaede… why? Why did you have to set that trap and get yourself killed?_

He pulled his knees up to his chest and sighed. Kaede Akamatsu, the girl who had become his first real friend in this stupid killing game and the one who gave him hope, was gone. Dead, and never coming back.

_Damn you, Monokuma..._

Shuichi had no idea where he was going to go from here. There was no way he could continue this game without Kaede by his side, he couldn’t possibly handle all of this by himself.

_No, that’s wrong._

He shook his head and brushed his bangs away from his face. He had to move forward from this. He had to believe in himself, survive this killing game, and take down the mastermind. He would not let Kaede’s sacrifice be in vain.

_I promise I won’t let you down, Kaede._

Shuichi’s head bobbed slightly as he struggled to keep eyes open. His body suddenly felt very heavy and he slumped to the ground as his eyes closed. He was sleepy, so sleepy. Was this the music’s doing?

_I guess I’ll just rest here for a few minutes…_

...

 

“You look pretty handsome without your hat, you know.”

That voice… it had to have been a dream… Shuichi thought as his eyes shot open. There was no way it really could’ve been her. She was gone now… But why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?

Slowly, Shuichi sat himself up on the floor and let out a huge yawn. How long had he been asleep? He ran his fingers through his hair when he noticed something was off.

_My hat!_

The detective frantically looked around his spot, looking for where his hat could’ve fallen off while he slept. Surely it couldn’t have gotten that far. He felt something firm tap against his face and looked in front of him. There was his hat, with someone holding it out for him. Perhaps Kirumi or Kaito sent someone to look after him? He gave a slight nod of appreciation as he took the hat. Shuichi glanced up to thank the person and gasped when he saw who it was.

He was looking straight at the smiling face of Kaede Akamatsu.

“What’s wrong?” the once-dead Kaede asked as she tilted her head slightly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Kaede let out a light chuckle. Oh, how he missed that laugh of hers! “Heh, sorry! That was probably kind of insensitive considering where-” Her apology was cut off by Shuichi throwing his arms around her neck. She blinked in confusion.

“Kaede....” He whimpered as he tightened his hold on the girl he thought he lost. “Kaede, is that really you?”

“Of course it’s me, silly! Who else would it be?” Shuichi gave no response at first. Instead, he gripped Kaede’s shirt and sobbed into her shoulder. 

“B-but I- we all saw you d-die out th-there and Monok-kuma e-exectued you but n-now you're here a-and I- I-” Shuichi struggled to speak in between his sobs, which had grown louder and his tears were now staining Kaede’s shirt.

Kaede was absolutely confused. Clearly she shouldn’t be here right now if she had died, that was a given. And she swore she would’ve remembered her death if it actually happened. So why was Shuichi crying?

The pianist girl focused her attention on the crying detective in her arms. She gently pulled him closer to her with one arm and stroked his soft hair with her free hand.

“Shhhh, it’s okay, Shuichi. I’m here now.” Shuichi found himself soothed by Kaede’s tender caresses and reassuring words, her melodic voice ringing in his ears as she told him that everything was going to be okay, she’s here now, he’s not alone and he’s not going to lose her again any time soon. The soothing continued until Shuichi’s sobs were reduced to soft whimpers, and he and Kaede were now just cuddling in each others’ arms. It was then that Shuichi realized how close he and Kaede had become, and he blushed at how much his chest was pressing into her ample bust. 

Kaede chuckled again as she placed a kiss on the top of Shuichi’s head. Her hand trailed up the back of his head and her index finger twirled around a stray strand of hair that stuck up from the top of his head much like her own. She nuzzled her cheek against Shuichi’s head and he smiled into her shoulder. Nothing was going to come between them. Not now, and not ever again. From now on, it would just be the two of them together…

Wait, what was that Shuichi said about Monokuma and an execution?

An alarm went off in her head. She remembered something.

Kaede suddenly broke off the embrace and looked directly into Shuichi’s eyes with a serious expression.

“Shuichi, there’s something I need to tell you,” she began. “It’s about this killing game.”

“Please, tell me.” Shuichi’s hand trailed up Kaede’s face and rested on her cheek. “Tell me so I don’t lose you again.”

“The truth is, I-”

 

 

DaNgAnRoNpA

 

 

The game suddenly froze in the middle of Kaede’s dialogue. The pink-haired, pink-eyed gamer just stared as the images on the screen refused to move and the music skipped around, not even reacting when the screen suddenly turned to static and the whole system shut down. She looked up from her game and at a brown-haired teen around her age sitting across from her.

“What just happened?” the girl asked quietly. “Chihiro, I’m pretty sure the game wasn’t supposed to crash in the middle of the scene. Unless this was supposed to be one of those shock value twist endings?”

“I-I’m so sorry, Chiaki!” Chihiro exclaimed. “There must’ve been a bug in the game that I overlooked while I was reprogramming it! I can fix that quickly, honest!”

“Mm hm…” Chiaki sleepily responded as she looked back at her gaming system. She turned it on again, selected “Photos,” and pulled up a screenshot that she managed to take of the cutscene before the game glitched out. “So… does it go anywhere beyond this?” The programmer nervously averted his gaze to the floor, his hands wringing around the hem of his shirt.

“Not r-really…” he stuttered. “I wanted to add some more CGs and more content in general, but then Hifumi got sick and couldn’t finish them and the voice actors I hired left for a convention. I’m sorry, Chiaki…” A few tears escaped from his eyes and he sniffled. Chiaki stood up and let out a small yawn.

“Well, that was definitely enjoyable,” she said as she unzipped her backpack and was about to put her gaming system back into it. Chihiro rubbed the tears away from his eyes and glanced up at Chiaki.

“You’re not mad?” Chiaki giggled and gave Chihiro a warm smile.

“Of course not, why would I be mad?” She pressed a few buttons on her system and turned it so the screen was facing Chihiro. The screen displayed another screenshot, this time of the CG where Shuichi embraced Kaede. “You saved my favorite character, and I can’t thank you enough for that. It really does mean a lot to me.” Chihiro smiled back at Chiaki, stood up from his seat and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, anything for my favorite cousin to be happy!”

“I’m your only cousin, Chihiro.” Chiaki playfully ruffled the shorter teen’s hair, then slipped her gaming system back into her backpack. “Well, I should probably get going. Hajime and the others are waiting for me. You sure you don’t want to come to the tournament?” Chihiro shook his head.

“No thanks, I have too much work to do. Besides, fighting games have never really been my thing.” Chiaki nodded and headed for the door. The two techno cousins waved to each other with Chihiro giving her a “Good luck!” as she left his apartment. Chihiro could’ve sworn he heard Hiyoko yelling at Chiaki in the hallway about how they were going to be late for Ibuki’s opening act (since when did they have music performances at gaming tournaments?).

The programmer mentally gave himself a pat on the back for all his hard work and made a mental note to thank Hifumi and those voice actors for their help. He glanced over to the laptop on his desk.

Still wouldn’t hurt to fix that one bug.

Chihiro went over to his desk and sat down, then opened up his laptop and clicked on a program titled “Danganronpa_V3_Killing_Harmony_Kaede_Protagonist_Mod.rom.”

This should be easy, Chihiro thought to himself as he typed away on his laptop. A few hours passed, and Chihiro wiped the sweat off of his forehead and saved his work. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that simple of a bug and it took more time than he anticipated to fix the problem, but at least now the mod was glitch-free. He’d have to let Chiaki know about this soon. Chihiro was about to close out of the program when a folder caught his eye. He clicked on it, and glanced over at the clock next to his laptop. 8:45, it read. He still had a few more hours before bedtime. He might as well have a little fun with the mod and add something extra. Chihiro opened up the folder and tapped his index finger against his chin.

“I wonder what I could start with these Rantaro sprites…”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed my first Danganronpa fic.


End file.
